Helpful/Cool things to do with old Computers?

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Fouchey

Fouchey

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Jun 26, 2013
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Not sure if this would be the right place to put this but right now I have 3 old desktops and a laptop..I'm not 100% sure what the specs are off the top of my head right now but they are all 5+ years old.

-The laptop monitor is broken(seems like it was dropped)

-One Desktop has a bad power supply

-One Desktop just had the HDD die and after I recovered the data they said to keep it.

-Last desktop is about 7-8 years old but works perfectly fine(for the age at least)

Some ideas I've been debating are Home Server, what would be the pros and cons to this? I use dropbox for file sharing and it works perfectly fine. I have 55GB to use on it. Home Theater PC Seems like a good idea maybe, does anyone have any experience with this? I really can't use the parts, my laptop and desktop are far beyond the specs.
 
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ronintexas
I have an HTPC with a 3 tuner digital cable card - replaced the cable boxes/DVRs in the house (save $60 per month). It works great. The thing I have found, the XBox does a better job of displaying video on my 60" Plasma at full HD, runs NetFlix, Hulu Plus, Windows Media Center (DVR/TV applications), MLB.TV and almost anything I throw at it - in full HD.

I have saved my DVD collection to hard drive (2 - 4TB HDD's), and can watch DVD's anytime. The only thing that doesn't work great is the BluRay interface....I ended up buying a BluRay player for that.

I use the HTPC as more of a server, using the XBoxes to stream on TV's.

The biggest difference between the XBox360 and a computer hooked up to the TV is the 29/59 refresh rate bug...
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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HTPC's can utilize older computer parts, as long as you don't get too complicated with the setup. By rule of thumb, you should design a system with 2 processor cores/threads (AMD = Core, Intel = Thread) per HD stream. You will also need 2GB RAM per HD stream. If you are using Windows XP/Vista/7 on the computer, I would also suggest 2GB RAM for the OS. So if you are looking to do 2 HD streams, you need 4 processor cores/threads and 6GB RAM.

SATA II drives work well for 2 or 3 HD streams - if you are utilizing over 3 HD streams, you will need SATA III.

Home Servers need as little as 2GB of RAM, and depending upon the number of users, you add RAM/HDD to build it up.

I have a 7 year old PC that I test stuff out on - running Ubuntu 13.04, light web surfing, etc....It is a duo core Intel with 3GB RAM. Slow compared to my main rig, but for downloading stuff from the net, learning Ubuntu and light web surfing, it suffices.

My HTPC I just upgraded (mobo/cpu/RAM) to a six-core AMD with 8GB of RAM, because I stream 3 HD channels, and the old PC above just wouldn't handle 3 HD streams (2 were fine).

With the prices of CPU/RAM/Mobo, you can bring things to a useful state for $200.

Of course, it is always great to have a test machine around for testing components.

You will find saving computer parts, you will become a pack rat quickly, amassing a huge pile of junk....
 
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Fouchey

Fouchey

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Jun 26, 2013
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Thanks for the response, I'll have to check the specs when I get home and yeah seems like I am starting to save too many parts. Up until this point I really have never heard much about HTPCs so I really don't know if it would be worth it for me. I have a good amount of digital copies for DVDs and also Netflix; I usually just watch them on my laptop but it would be nice to stream it all connected to my TV maybe if my family wanted to watch something. What all can they do? What is the main difference between a HTPC and just connecting a laptop up to the TV with a VGA or something?
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

Judicious
Dec 10, 2012
5,911
0
32,960
I have an HTPC with a 3 tuner digital cable card - replaced the cable boxes/DVRs in the house (save $60 per month). It works great. The thing I have found, the XBox does a better job of displaying video on my 60" Plasma at full HD, runs NetFlix, Hulu Plus, Windows Media Center (DVR/TV applications), MLB.TV and almost anything I throw at it - in full HD.

I have saved my DVD collection to hard drive (2 - 4TB HDD's), and can watch DVD's anytime. The only thing that doesn't work great is the BluRay interface....I ended up buying a BluRay player for that.

I use the HTPC as more of a server, using the XBoxes to stream on TV's.

The biggest difference between the XBox360 and a computer hooked up to the TV is the 29/59 refresh rate bug (Microsoft related - they aren't fixing it), so if you enjoy full HD, use the XBox to extend WMC.

If you connect a computer directly to the big screen - use AMD chipset video cards - they do a much better job as compared to NVIDIA/Intel (and I am an Intel boy at heart - but HTPC does better with AMD).

I use Netflix and Hulu Plus off the XBox, don't use it on the PC - so I can't say how well that works on the PC connected to a TV.
 
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